Friday, June 13, 2008

A funny thing happened on the way to write this post . . . my husband asked if he could write it for me. My husband. Writing a review of women's clothing. Apparently I'm married to Yves St. Laurent.

Of course I asked why and he let me know that if he wrote about the red Shabby Apple dress I wore last week it would convince everyone to run out and buy one for themselves or for their wives (depending on which side of the marriage you sit). He liked it that much--but to back up a bit . . .

Shabby Apple recently came to my attention as a place for dresses and accessories. I did some sniffing around their site and liked what I saw enough that I bought four of their dresses. FOUR?! Yes, four. Let's just say I had several months worth of personal cash burning a hole in my pocket.

Anyway, what I liked was that the dresses were chic and classy without being skanky then to top it with a cherry they were very well priced--most $50 to $60-ish, some less on sale. I bought the Polo in red knit, the Gypsy in grey knit, the Sabrina in black satin and the Storm in charcoal knit (I would have also bought 24K and Antiquated if they'd had my size).

I'm a pretty solid size 8 but you know how it is, you'd much rather have the clothes be more loose than snug so when I saw that their medium was a 6-8 I got a little nervous because a six-ish 8 might be too snug. I chickened out last minute and ordered larges in everything but Gypsy (they only had a medium)--especially because the Storm was said to fit snugly anyway.

The Polo fit nicely (though I could have gone smaller and been fine) the Storm was snug so a large was good, the Sabrina, however, was loose in a large and I probably should have gone with the medium but the medium-sized Gypsy with its long sleeves was too short in the arms--though a medium would have worked if it weren't for my gorilla limbs. I don't know if you followed all of this but the bottom line is, generally the sizes they have seem to be accurate and you can trust them and knits are a little more forgiving one way or another.

I wanted to keep everything except the one that was too short in the arms and after reading their return policy I was pleasantly surprised--they pay all the return shipping costs and if you do an exchange and get a new item instead of just returning the old one they'll throw in a little treat for your troubles.

This intrigued me--who doesn't like the chance at "valuable prizes"? But I didn't want any other dresses so just I returned the Gypsy and only asked them to send me the red sash that went with the Sabrina dress but which was sold separately. Sure enough the sash came and even though it was an $18 sash exchanged for a $68 dress (with free shipping both ways) they sent me a lovely set of mother of pearl gigantor cool earrings which I now wear with pride and happiness.

When I mentioned Shabby Apple a while back Angie commented that she had had a dress with quality issues that she had purchased from Shabby Apple so I was curious about this angle--especially given such great prices--and in general I was pleased. I thought the Polo and Gypsy dresses were wonderful, the Storm dress not as good but still quite good but the Sabrina in black satin felt a little thin, the stitching around the neck was a tad sloppy and I had two of the large buttons in the back fall off immediately--still a dress I was happy to wear because I'd got it on sale for $48 at half price, but if I'd paid full price I would have been a little disappointed. A final note: they also sell accessories and sweet little girl dresses. I liked some of the jewelry well enough though I thought it didn't seem like as great a deal as the apparel did.

How does Andrew feel about the dresses? Well let's just say if he'd written this post it would have been a little . . . um . . . more passionate. When I wore that red Polo dress he kept saying how much he loved it the whole time I had it on (what is it with men and red dresses?) Anyway, it definitely passed the husband test. I wore the Storm dress and had some of the teen girls I work with at church tell me how much they loved it and asked where I got it--how often does that happen when you're pushing 38?

But enough about me . . . this is about you and your chance at winning your own Shabby Apple dress. Make that dresses because they have some sweet mother-daughter combos and this weekend's winner will receive the "90 words per minute" woman's dress with the matching "45 words per minute" child's dress. Go take a peak then come back and follow the directions below to enter.

Here's how to win:

Before 12 am Monday go to the giveaway entry form on this page and enter your name and email. I will pick one of the names at random, contact the winner via their email and publish the winner's first name and home town in next Tuesday's post. See the bottom of the entry form for more details.

i want to look and feel pretty... (reminds me of Maria in Westside story, "I feel pretty, oh, so pretty...")And, i have 1 girl out of five kids. Would be just wonderful to really match her, to be cutely dressed like her. anyhow, with the whole international thing, some of us still have an address to send things to available in the States as well. ahhhh, Please don't boot me out on account of where i reside. :-) have a great day.

oh, i love the 40s secretary look, and this is an updated version. very nice, very katherine hepburn. thanks for the contest.

http://melissaneece.blogspot.com (lots of pregnancy and natural living links)http://melissasreviews.blogspot.com (holistic reviews for the practical person)http://bookretrospects.blogspot.com (book reviews by a voracious reader)

From the pictures that you posted it looks like they are "well thought out" dresses. Because they seem to be in the styles that are supposed to be universally flattering to us all. I will have to check it out:)